Vs2012 experience and a CookBook

I have adopted Visual Studio 2012 3 months ago in a .NET 4.0 project, created with the SPA concept (Single Page Application) that is with a JQuery heavy use: it is a mission critical project with many concurrent users and a heavy load on the database (Sql Server 2008) .

The first problem was the user interface, sincerely the old Visual Studio 2010 is more user friendly; fortunately the icons now are less monocromatic than the beta versions, it was a nightmare… i thinked one year ago: but in the future i must use this orrible interface ?

The things goes better with the “Color Theme Editor” extension that permits with the Blue theme a look more “2010 style”; and i have changed the text colors until i got my preferred “dark” interface:

Another bad thing: the capital letters for the menus (as in Office 2013)…. i don’t understand this choice, is very ugly.

The real problem in Vs 2012, as in Office 2013 and Windows 8, is the lack of rounded corners that gives an unhappy feeling of old technologies: i have worked with Windows 1.03 , Windows 286, 386, SCO Unix etc. and the “Modern” interface remember to me something…

In my Windows 7 pc i have deactivated many effects in order to maximize the performances, but IMHO a bit of Aero & rounded corners makes the work environment better to use, and some more colors in the icons effectively helps.

Apart the initial interface shock and some effort in order to customize the work environment, Vs2012 is very valid for the everyday work and in some features (searching on files, for example) is better than Vs2010, i must admit.

The solution file (.sln) format for the first time is not changed in a new Visual Studio version, so i can work to the same files with other programmers that still uses Visual Studio 2010; for this project was imposed to use an old Visual Source Safe 2005 and Visual Studio 2012 can make Checkins and Checkouts of files managed from other programmers with Vs 2010, without problems.